Jingle Dancer

Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2000. Jingle dancer. Ill. by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu. New York: Morrow Junior Books. ISBN 0688162428

Plot Summary

Jenna loves to watch the videotape of her Grandma Wolfe jingle dancing at a powwow and is excited when her grandma says she can dance at the next powwow. Unfortunately, there is not enough time to order the tin needed to make the jingles for Jenna’s dress. Jenna needs four rows of jingles, without them, Jenna’s dress won’t sing. The next day Jenna visits her aunt, cousin, and a neighbor and asks them each for enough jingles to make a row. Jenna only asks for one row each, because she doesn’t want their dresses to lose their voices. When she returns home, Grandma Wolfe gives her the jingles to make the fourth row. At the powwow, Jenna dances the jingle dance for the four women who gave her the jingles so her dress could sing.

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

Jingle Dancer shows how a modern day Muscogee Indian girl looks forward to carrying on the traditions of her people through dancing at a powwow. The setting is contemporary, but each of the women take pride in honoring their heritage and helping Jenna to continue the jingle dancing tradition. An author’s note explains the origins of the traditions and offers more information about the foods and activities at the powwow. The note also explains the importance of the number four, reflected in the story through Jenna’s goal of borrowing enough jingles from four women to make four rows. The watercolor illustrations show the variety of jingle dresses and other regalia worn at the powwow.

Review Excerpts

School Library Journal: “Seeing Jenna as both a modern girl in the suburban homes of her intertribal community and as one of many traditionally costumed participants at the powwow will give some readers a new view of a contemporary Native American way of life... This picture book will not only satisfy a need for materials on Native American customs, but will also be a welcome addition to stories about traditions passed down by the women of a culture.”

Book Links: “This is a rare book depicting a contemporary story of a Native American child. There are rich opportunities to explore dance, family, and the Muscogee-Creek Nation.”

Connections

More books by Cynthia Leitich Smith with a focus on Native American characters:
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2001. Rain is not my Indian name. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780688173975
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2002. Indian shoes. Ill. by Jim Madsen. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060295318

Mice and Beans

Ryan, Pam Muñoz. 2001. Mice and beans. Ill. by Joe Cepeda. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0439183030

Plot Summary

Rosa María is busy making preparations for her youngest granddaughter’s seventh birthday when her whole family will squeeze into her tiny house for the celebration. Each day, Rosa María completes another task on her long to-do list, and each evening she sets a mousetrap to make sure no mice are around to spoil the celebration. When Rosa María discovers that various things have gone missing, a napkin, feathers from the turkey piñata, a candle, and each and every mousetrap she has set, she chalks it up to forgetfulness, oblivious to the mice in the house. When Rosa María does forget one important task, it is up to the mice to save the celebration.

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

Mice and Beans offers a playful tale of a grandmother who shows her love for her large family through her careful preparations for a traditional Mexican-American family birthday party. The bright and colorful illustrations show the preparations from a mouse’s point of view, either from the floor or from high atop furniture. The illustrations tell the tale of the fate of all of the missing items. A recipe for rice and beans is provided on the back cover.

Spanish words and phrases are skillfully woven throughout the story. The meaning of these words and phrases are made clear through contextual translation, through supporting illustrations, and through literal translations. While many of the Spanish words that are introduced refer to food, objects, and events that may be familiar to English speakers, the story also includes less familiar expressions such as “¡Qué boba soy! Silly me” and “No importa”.  A glossary and pronunciation guide is hidden among the publication information on the last page for further clarification of terms.

Review Excerpts

Publishers Weekly: “Munoz's rollicking birthday tale stars one Spanish-speaking grandmother, one very long list of party preparations and a band of enterprising mice... The dialogue is rich in Spanish phrases, descriptions of Mexican food and images of a boisterous extended family.”

School Library journal: “The text, interspersed with Spanish expressions, appears on vivid full-page illustrations, creatively drawn from a mouse's perspective. This imaginative and artistic book combines richly colored and angled illustrations with a variety of text fonts and sizes. Cepeda adds detail and expression to the smallest objects and inhabitants of Rosa Maria's casita--even the turkey pinata seems alive.”

Connections

Mice and Beans, with its recipe for rice and beans and depictions of traditional Mexican-American foods and party activities, provides a perfect opportunity to bring the story to life by having kids cook rice and beans for their own party, piñata and all.
Novels by Pam Muñoz Ryan:
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. 2004. Becoming naomi león. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 9780439269698
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. 2000. Esperanza rising. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 9780439120418

Confetti: Poems for Children

Mora, Pat. 1996. Confetti: poems for children. Ill. by Enrique O. Sanchez. New York: Lee & Low Books Inc. ISBN 1880000253

Plot Summary

A collection of poems showing a young Mexican-American girl celebrating the sights, sounds, and the culture of the Southwest.

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

The sights and sounds of the Southwest are expressed through free verse poetry with colorful illustrations providing visual support for the concepts presented. Spanish words are peppered throughout many of the poems, wherever poetically and thematically appropriate.  Most of the Spanish words are not translated within the poem, but they are made clear through context, including the context of the corresponding illustrations.  From the poem Sun Song, “Ranitas in the rocks hear the sun’s first song… Ranitas in the rocks croak their morning song.”, the meaning of the word ranita is suggested through the illustration of a little frog and the croaking of their morning song. A glossary is included for further clarification of the Spanish words.

Review Excerpts

School Library Journal: “Narrative poems in free verse capture the rhythms and uniqueness of the Southwest and its culture as seen through the eyes of a Mexican-American girl… The beauty of the natural world is captured in Sanchez’s acrylic illustrations.”

Connections

More books by Pat Mora:
Mora, Pat. 2005. Doña flor : A tall tale about a giant woman with a great big heart. Ill. by Raúl Colón. New York: Knopf. ISBN 9780375823374
Mora, Pat. 1997. Tomás and the library lady. Ill. by Raúl Colón. New York: Knopf : Distributed by Random House. ISBN 0152054979
Mora, Pat. 2009. Book fiesta! : Celebrate children's day/book day. Ill. by Rafael López. New York, NY: Rayo. ISBN 9780061288777

Mora, Pat. 2009. Gracias. Ill. by John Parra. New York: Lee & Low Books. ISBN 9781600602580

The Afterlife

Soto, Gary. 2003. The afterlife. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 0152047743

Plot Summary

17 year-old Chuy is murdered in the restroom of a Fresno dance club when he compliments a guy on his shoes. Over the next few days, Chuy floats around Fresno as a ghost, playing ghostly tricks, mourning his lost life, saying goodbye to his friends and family, and falling in love with a ghost girl who committed suicide.

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

The Afterlife presents a detailed picture of the Mexican-American community in Fresno, California as seen through the eyes of a young man homesick for the life he has lost. The people, culture, and surroundings are described with affection through the generous use of Spanish words. The general meanings of the Spanish words are easily understood through the context of the story. A glossary is included which provides the definitions needed to understand the finer nuances of the words.

Chuy is a likeable character, a typical teen with whom readers can easily identify. The story starts off strong, but quickly fizzles and becomes a meandering memorial. None of the plot lines are satisfactorily resolved. The identity, motive, and fate of Chuy’s murderer remain a mystery. Chuy’s discovery of love at first sight in his afterlife comes across as shallow, as shallow as his love interest’s motives for committing suicide. Despite the intriguing premise and authentic cultural details, the story is disappointing.

Review Excerpts

Booklist: “Soto has remade Our Town into Fresno, California, and he not only paints the scenery brilliantly but also captures the pain that follows an early death. In many ways, this is as much a story about a hardscrabble place as it is about a boy who is murdered.”

School Library Journal: “Soto's simple and poetic language, leavened with Mexican Spanish with such care to context that the appended glossary is scarcely needed, is clear, but Chuy's ultimate destiny isn't.”

Connections

More books for teens by Gary Soto:

Soto, Gary. 2007. Mercy on these teenage chimps. Orlando: Harcourt. ISBN 9780152060220

Soto, Gary. 2006. Accidental love. Orlando: Harcourt. ISBN 9780152054977

Soto, Gary. 2006. Jesse. Orlando: Harcourt. ISBN 9780152054250

Soto, Gary. 1997. Buried onions. San Diego: Harcourt Brace. ISBN 0152060227

The First Part Last

Johnson, Angela. 2003. The first part last. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781442403437

Plot Summary

Bobby, a 16-year-old African American teen in New York, is trying to keep up with his friends and schoolwork while raising his infant daughter, Feather. Bobby is solely responsible for this tiny creature that rules his life. As the story switches back and forth from the Now of sleepless nights and dirty diapers, and the Then of Bobby and his girlfriend Nia trying to decide what to do about an unplanned pregnancy, the tragic circumstances that led to Bobby being a single parent are slowly revealed.

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

The First Part Last is a powerful story about a young man trying his best to care for his daughter. The exhaustion and wonder of new parenthood are vividly described.  The Now and Then structure of the story builds tension as the reader wonders why Bobby is doing this by himself, what happened to the baby’s mom? The heartbreaking circumstances of Nia’s tragedy and Bobby’s devastating loss are slowly revealed with raw emotion. Bobby is not without flaws, he makes mistakes, and is the first to admit that he should have used a condom. Bobby’s love for his daughter shines throughout the story and lends his character the strength to do what needs to be done.

Bobby’s relationships with his family and friends are an important part of the story and are crucial to his ability to take responsibility for his daughter. Bobby’s mother takes a tough love approach that includes rules that Bobby must follow:

If she hollers, she is mine.

If she needs to be changed, she is always mine.

In the dictionary next to “sitter,” there is not a picture of Grandma.

It’s time to grow up.

Too late, you’re out of time. Be a grown-up.

Despite this hands off approach, it is obvious that she loves Bobby and Feather deeply and is trying to give him the strength to handle single fatherhood. Bobby’s father, on the other hand, provides unconditional love and support. Bobby’s older brother, Paul, offers understanding of both the difficulties and the joys of being a father.

Bobby’s relationship with Nia is loving, sensual, and seems likely to last through the trials of making the decision to give their daughter up for adoption, until the unthinkable happens. There is a disconnect between Bobby and Nia’s parents, however. Despite their verbal assurance of support when Bobby decides to keep Feather, they apparently cannot bring themselves to be a part of Feather’s life.

Review Excerpts

Booklist: “…from the first page, readers feel the physical reality of Bobby’s new world: what it’s like to hold Feather on his stomach,smell her skin, touch her clenched fists, feel her shiver, and kiss the top of her curly head. Johnson makes poetry with the simplest words in short, spare sentences that teens will read again and again. The great cover photo shows the strong African American teen holding his tiny baby in his arms.”

Kirkus Reviews: “By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy. The somewhat pat ending doesn't diminish the impact of this short, involving story. It's the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy.”

2004 Winner of both the Coretta Scott King Award and the Michael L. Printz Award.

Connections

The First Part Last is part of the Heaven trilogy:

Johnson, Angela. 1998. Heaven. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. ISBN 9780689822292

Johnson, Angela. 2010. Sweet, Hereafter. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. ISBN 9780689873850

The Guardian

Lester, Julius. 2008. The guardian. New York: Amistad. ISBN 9780061558900

Plot Summary

It is the summer of 1946 in a small, deeply segregated, southern town. Bert, the local storekeeper, is training his 14-year-old son, Ansel, to take over the family store, even though he worries that Ansel is too much like his mother and does not understand what it means to be white. Ansel and his best friend Willie, a black boy hired to help out at the store, take every chance they can find to go fishing together. Ansel is not sure he wants to run the store, but he cannot imagine a different future.

When Willie’s father is accused of a horrible crime, a crime that Bert and Ansel know he is innocent of, the townspeople gather for a lynching. Ansel tries to get Bert to tell the townspeople that the crime was committed by the white landowner’s son, but Bert refuses and forces Ansel to get the rope. In the aftermath of the lynching, Ansel is given a chance to escape the soul-killing racism of the small town. However, Ansel can never escape his deep shame, and he can never repair the friendship he destroyed when he kept silent and watched Willie’s father hang.

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

Lester uses the powerful imagery of a tree silently bearing a shame so deep that it is a relief when it is struck down by lightening to foreshadow the deep shame that will follow Ansel throughout his life. The theme of the novel is best expressed through something Willie’s father once told him:

“Don’t never let yourself be angry with white folks. Us niggers, we know things are in a bad way. But the white folks? They don’t know that by keeping us down in a ditch, they got to be right here in the ditch with us. And because they don’t know that, they worse off than we are.”

The novel explores the effects of deeply ingrained racism, a racism that caused people to treat the lynching of a black man like a day at the county fair.

Although the story is ostensibly about Ansel, and the prologue and epilogue are written from Ansel’s first-person point of view, the use of an omniscient third-person narrative throughout the rest of the story allows for insights into the motivations of a variety of characters. The most telling insights come from Ansel’s and Willie’s differing perspectives. Ansel feels discomfort at the fact that he is supposed to address Willie’s father as “Big Willie”, when Willie has to address Ansel as “Master Ansel” even in private. Another telling insight is in the different reactions of the boys when Esther Davis, the landowner’s sister who hopes to rescue both boys from the cancerous racism of the town, asks them what they would like to be when they grow up. Ansel is confused by the question and cannot think of an answer, he has never considered the possibility of doing anything other than following in his father’s footsteps. Willie, on the other hand, quickly answers “A doctor”, not because he has ever dreamed of a life that would allow for that possibility, but because he knows his survival depends upon being able to understand and give white people the answers that they want.

An author’s note at the end of the book explains Lester’s reason for writing about a lynching from a white boy’s point of view. Lester also provides a brief history of lynching in America. An appendix provides chilling statistics on the number of lynchings in America, by state and by race, from 1882-1968.

Review Excerpts

Publishers Weekly: “Focusing on the repercussions of white guilt, the author's understated, haunting prose is as compelling as it is dark; if the characterizations tend toward the extreme, the story nonetheless leaves a deep impression.”

School Library Journal: “Poignant and powerful phrasing overshadows spare character development and helps satisfy readers' desire to explore the deeper motivations for some behaviors. The understated violence, coupled with reflections on lynching, heightens the horror..”

Connections

Check out the 2006 Coretta Scott King Honor and 2006 Michael L. Printz Honor book about the lynching of Emmett Till:

 Nelson, Marilyn. 2005. A wreath for Emmett Till. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN 9780618397525

The Hired Hand

San Souci, Robert D. 1997. The hired hand. Ill. by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0803712960

Plot Summary

When Old Sam, the owner of a sawmill, and his shiftless son, Young Sam, hire a man to work for them they get more than they bargained for. The New Hand works hard and without complaint, despite Young Sam’s high and mighty airs. One day an old farmer comes to the mill complaining of a misery in his back. The New Hand offers to heal the old farmer, but tells Old Sam and Young Sam that they cannot be there to witness it. The New Hand uses his magic to turn the old farmer into wood, saw him into pieces, wash away his misery, and return him to life, health, and youth. Unbeknownst to the New Hand, Young Sam sneaks back to witness the magic. Later, when Old Sam is out of town, Young Sam’s biggity ways finally drive the New Hand away. When the farmer arrives at the mill seeking help for his old wife, Young Sam decides to try the magic himself, with disastrous results.

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

The Hired Hand is based on an African American version of an old folktale. This version of the  tale was first written down in 1871, though it has deeper roots in oral storytelling. In San Souci’s retelling, he keeps the essence of the Black dialect of the original story, which provides cultural authenticity. The magic ritual is told in poetic language, “Sawdust! Do what you must! Turn this skin an’ bone to wood, so my saw cut but don’ draw blood.”

Pinkney’s watercolor illustrations are colorful and capture the magic of the tale. In an illustrator’s note at the back of the book, Pinkney explains how he chose the setting for the story. Pinkney wanted to be historically accurate and thought he would have to set it after the Emancipation Proclamation, until his research revealed the existence of towns established by antislavery Quakers who welcomed free black craftsmen who could own their own sawmills. Pinkney’s attention to historical accuracy is reflected in his illustrations of characters in period clothing.

Review Excerpts

Publishers Weekly: “Seasoned collaborators San Souci and Pinkney weave themes of magic, rebirth and retribution into another splendid retelling of an African American folk tale.”

Connections

Other collaborations between Robert D. San Souci and Jerry Pinkney include:

San Souci, Robert D. 1988. Talking Eggs. Ill. by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.

San Souci, Robert D. 1995. The Faithful Friend. Ill. by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Simon & Schuster.

San Souci, Robert D. 1998. Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella. Ill. by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. ISBN 9780689806681